


5 Firsts

by kaesaria



Category: A Knight's Tale (2001)
Genre: 5 Times, Backstory, F/F, F/M, First Time, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-20
Updated: 2006-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 07:42:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1639505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaesaria/pseuds/kaesaria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hope guides me. It is what gets me through the day and especially the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	5 Firsts

**Author's Note:**

> For Carla, who asked for A Knight's Tale story with femslash, because "farriers deserve love, too." I hope this comes somewhat close to what you were hoping for. Happy holidays!

 

 

The first night Kate ever spent alone was the night after her husband died.

As a girl, Kate had always shared a bed with her little sisters. She'd spent her youth happily crowded into her family's one-room cottage with her parents and the little ones (both lost to sickness young, God rest them).

She had met the farrier's boy when she was very young. He'd been a ways upriver from where the women were doing the washing, playing with other little boys his age. She had watched with envious eyes as they laughed and yelled and jumped around muddy puddles, her legs twitching to run and join them. When the farrier's boy had seen her looking, he'd smiled and gestured and the temptation had been too much for her little body and before she knew it, she'd been covered with mud from head to toe and laughing and yelling along with the boys.

Her mother had dragged her home that night, scolding, and her father had met them in the doorway to their cottage. He'd laughed at her dirty face and dress, eyes sparkling, and then he'd swung her up and held her, strong arms outstretched, as he asked, _how are we to make a little woman out of this mess,_ and, _how are we to find a nice young farmer to keep a home with this little terror?_

Kate had thought of the wide smile and laughing blue eyes of the farrier's boy and she'd replied, _don't worry father, I will keep a home in town_.

***

The first time she worked on William's armor, she poured her frustration into the shaping of the metal. She attacked the plates with the fury welling inside her at all the people she had ever called family, her sisters and her parents and her husband, for leaving her behind in this world not made for a woman alone.

She had pounded the hammer down harder with every draw and something in her chest had burned hotter than the coals that sparked and hissed in her (husband's) forge.

She had not thought much of Sir Ulrich or his men, at first, beyond a faint resentment that they'd come to her only as a last resort; but something changed when she watched the unlikely knight compete in his new-repaired armor. There was fire within him that outshone all others in the joust, a raw spirit and unrelenting desire to win that had obviously not been taught.

So with a dancing lesson and a set of armor she bought herself a place in his band of merry men and learned soon enough that they were like her: displaced and floundering and trying to make something of themselves in a world that would not accept them.

They were young and reckless and learned not to mind her sex and with them she slowly learned to look beyond her past.

***

The first time Christiana tried to kiss her lips, Kate had to turn her face away.

The girl's kisses were soft against her breast, her collarbone, her neck. But when Christiana moved further up to seek her face, Kate shifted their bodies until she was on top, in control again, on the tangled bedclothes. If the girl noticed the sudden change, she didn't make any sign; only sighed softly and twisted in pleasure as Kate explored her body with lips and fingers, then reached out guilelessly to reciprocate.

Every time with Christiana was a new treasure. The girl seemed to know things about her body that Kate had never dreamed; she could do things with her hands and lips that made Kate shudder and gasp and forget everything beyond the bed they shared; and yet she did it all with a natural innocence, an innate youngness that Kate could never understand but began to wish she could reach within herself.

Kate didn't know what it was to feel young, of late, though she could still remember being it.

Afterward, Christiana said, _my lady travels to Avignon this coming week,_ and _will you be there, do you think?_ The girl was lying on her stomach, head propped up over her crossed arms, watching Kate with open brown eyes.

Kate formed her lips to make a smile and replied without answering, _I go with Lord Ulrich._

***

The first time Kate saw Lady Jocelyn creep quietly into William's tent at night, she had felt a sharp pain somewhere in her breast that never quite faded, and had only gotten worse the next morning when she saw the smile on William's face and thought of how that same smile had looked on the face of her husband (God rest him).

For months she watched from the shadows as the young lovers' attraction turned to passion turned to love, until her pain slowly fell away to be replaced by a genuine happiness for William and the love he had found.

Kate continued watching, more out of habit than intent, and one day she realized that the line of her eyes had shifted somewhat, of late, and that instead she was watching the girl next to and a little behind the lady Jocelyn and her lover.

William and Roland and Geoffrey and even Wat, this unlikely band of men that had become her new family, had begun the healing of her soul, but they could only do so much. Kate slowly remembered what it was to have a heart.

So when Roland asked, _are you a woman or a blacksmith?_ Kate had to say, _sometimes I'm both._

That night, when Christiana lay soft and sated beside her on the mussed furs, Kate bent and brushed her lips against the girl's, quick as fire. When she pulled back to look, Christiana's eyes were dancing with impish joy.

They loved and laughed together long into the night.

***

The first time Kate spoke to Christiana about her husband (God rest him), it was difficult, but not near so painful as she'd feared.

Kate said, _he was young_ and _we both were_ and _I loved him so much_.

She thought of her wedding day, with the entire village turned out to celebrate. She thought of her little house at the edge of town and her wedding bed. She thought of the look in her husband's eyes, near bursting with pride, when he first showed her his forge.

Christiana slowly ran the tips of her fingers up Kate's arm and said nothing.

Kate thought of all the secret smiles she shared with the girl, and of the long conversations they could have using only their eyes. She thought of the times they laughed together at the expense of the silly men in her company.

She reached out and lifted Christiana's chin until the girl met her eyes.

Kate said, _but I have you now_.

Christiana was still and she looked at Kate for a long moment, eyes searching. And then she smiled.

She said, _yes_ and _you have me_ and _I have you, at last_.

 

**Author's Note:**

> All feedback is hugely appreciated. You can also discuss this story (or anything else) with me on [Tumblr](http://kaesaria.tumblr.com/). **(ETA: And now also on Imzy.[Come play with me!](https://www.imzy.com/kaesaria))**


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